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SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — A West Valley City mother is out of jail after pleading guilty to a reduced charge in the death of her 13-month-old son.
Kim Hawkins has spent a year behind bars awaiting trial and was released after entering the plea to negligent homicide.
Lawyers for the 25-year-old woman maintain she's innocent, but say the plea deal resolves the case.
Prosecutors charged her with murder in the 2014 death. They said some of the child's injuries indicate he may have been suffocated, including teeth marks inside his upper lip that could have been due to his lip being pressed against his teeth.
Hawkins says on the day her son died she went to get him up for breakfast and found him unresponsive with his lips turning blue.
Medical examiners found the cause of death was undetermined.
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